337 more villages get electricity

New Delhi, March 21 (IANS) A total of 337 villages in 12 states got electricity during the week ending on March 20, taking the total so far in 2015-16 to 6,816, an official statement said on Monday.

The power ministry said the electrification took place under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna.

“Of these, 67 (villages) are in Odisha, 49 in Jharkhand, 66 in Uttar Pradesh, 30 in Arunachal Pradesh, 41 in Bihar, 49 in Assam, 12 in Chhattisgarh, 9 in Madhya Pradesh, 11 in Rajasthan and one each in Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir,” said the statement.

The government has decided to provide electricity to 18,452 villages by May 1, 2018, it said.

“Out of the remaining 11,636 villages, 7,976 villages are to be electrified through grid, 3,205 villages through off-grid, where grid solutions are out of reach due to geographical barriers, and 455 villages are to be electrified by state governments,” the statement added.